fashionRIP is a multidiscipline, transmedia installation of chapters, an exploration of perceptions and beliefs. It’s a platform that explores ecosystems health, generative economics, social justice, cultural and creative diversity. Starting with recycouture garments, the story became the Project. It is now an evolving experiment, designed to explore meaningful relationship based constructs that put human potential and whole systems health over the abstract ideas of faux "the real world."

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2012

Promise is a granddaughter born

with a spiky do, universe grins!

Tis the year of Transition, setting the direction for the Transformation. However as time was a system made for tracking seasons, it is a cumbersome tool for things with no moon phases or fixed points. Good labels are a matter of hindsight, but without foresight we fail to get out of ruts.

So playing with energy and intent, here is my take:

Transition is the step up and out, towards hope, towards global healing. Transformation is the next illumination.

In other words, transitions, transformations, epiphanies and evolutionary leaps are constantly popping up all over the "timeline." Each person progresses at the speed they are able. i think starts, stops and do-overs are how we learn best. It's a timeline through a kaleidoscope.

Transforming a whole wrong minded culture is big. But we must in order to thrive as individuals. This is the new paradigm of the whole.

However, we are culturally brainwashed. Some of it like, "thou shall not steal" is still relevant, but a lot of it is not so much. Much of what we are taught is stuff deemed necessary by "they that rule," so "they" can continue their good thing. This means we get a twisted version of facts to swallow. (Funny as designing for comfort practically screams of developmental stagnation which explains the rut! Our brains thrive on challenge, but we have allowed this lesser state to hunker down and settle in)

Back to time; on the way past Rome, feudalism and into the Renaissance there were tweaks. Enlightenment brought on revolutions and the new elitists joined the ranks. (Our Founding Fathers and their wealthy alliances)

The profit minded industrialists became the new players on the block. They quickly aligned with regulators and policy makers. Their "success" led the west to see the world as a vast machine. Life "the mechanism" could be controlled, organized and counted. Whereas nature was viewed as chaotic and frightening, machines helped humans feel powerful, safe and in control of their domain. These humans felt they were winning the "war against nature."

Now we understand that way of thinking is about to take down the life support systems of the planet. While corporations shuffle to own the pieces of our collective biosphere, We the People are standing up and yelling "Back Off!" (India suing Monsanto!! after Dow and Bhopal she has had enough, Occupy Wall Street going global, more)

We are not as suicidal or as brain dead as the systems we are plugged into. We are part of the blooming, messy, natural cycle. We are Nature. We are not machines we are far MORE! The obvious doesn't wear a business uniform or khakis, the obvious wears truth as best it can.

AKA, the system we (living beings) set up has declared war on itself, is this classic or what?

OK so the transition is to start on the healing. We need to wake up from the e-drugged state of* dependent energy into an appreciative and mindful energy. We all have a lot to do. This is good, this is change.

This is something we can do for ourselves and others. Start with the professionals, read and explore your personal territory while you learn. Then when you feel secure enough in your knowing heart, peel back the covers and share. Invite others to do the same.

Our friends and loved ones know us best. We can start there to build the trust and the spaces for healing in our lives. Then get braver and speak up at every opportunity. Change waits for no one, it is the direction that counts.

The shows i am doing with the Kerf International Exhibits and fashionRIP Project's "Peoples Media Arts Uprising 2012" are experiments in all of this. I know only from where i am, and i know i must participate to nurture the more, and so it goes. So we all go.2012, welcome. May we learn together to thrive as whole beings in a living, energy filled, dynamic Universe.

*Dependent energy: our food system (esp refined sugars and carbs, now GMOs and pharma frankens- patents mean $, nature is "free" until Dow/Gates pull out heritage disaster food relief from the Arctic..OMG! what price are "we" willing to pay, who are "WE?") oil and petrol chemical by products (plastics in medical devices to alleviate the symptoms of diseases caused by our Wars and from the toxins in the plastic life cycle) apps on smart phones hooked to corporate vampires, too much Facebook, too little face time. Our dependencies (addictions) on created needs will never be satisfied here, even if we had an infinite planet to carry out the experiment, which we do not, so the game is over! Please everyone, help us all move on!!

Why it Matters

What's the matter with more and more fashion choices?

It sounds good; we love to be able to pick the perfect outfit. You wear it once or twice and then ....what was the real cost here?

Your time to shop and the money spent, not so much ....go a little deeper and consider the fiber source, the dyes and chemicals used, the health toll on the workers, the energy to run the machines, the transporting carbons...and now it just takes up closet space. But so what? It's been going on for-almost-ever and you didn't make the rules.

In fact we are told this is what a "healthy" economy looks like.

You will recycle it after all, give it to charity or your sister. This is more transportation and more release of those greenhouse gases. We are using a lot of our personal energy and the resources of this planet to make, use and dump "trash" Some rags, remnants and tawdry bits will molder for eons in landfills, as nature's microbial actions are hampered by our normalized, everyday toxic lifestyles.

This goes beyond dumps as the breakdown cycle that nourishes the life of this planet has been sorely challenged by GMO crops, fertilizers, pesticides, antimicrobials..RIGHT!!. All the "living better through chemistry" propaganda after WWI and II- AKA how to sell your "garbage," is our legacy. Well no more, not on my (our) watch, we are seeing things quite differently.

As we now carry 298 toxins in our bods that weren't there in the 1930s the toxic residues of normal are haunting us more and more. Ironic, no? Advanced is merely a word.

Go to the So Whats the Point blog in February for the numbers.

fashionRIP posts are copr at time of posting thank you

It All connects - it's all One

Extinctions ...So What?

Life evolves, some species survive some don't. We like to allude to Darwin's "natural selection" or Herbert Spencer's "survival of the fittest" because we are so good at reproducing and taking over this planet and justifying that side of our natures. The fact that we are wiping out the food chain by destroying habitat, fouling air and water and generally behaving like arrogant, tinkering idiots, is called business as usual. .....Well I and others are no longer buying that "sell."

We are wising up to the idea that we too, are dependent on these resources. We too, are physically an organic species and we really don't know what little extinction will be the start of the chain reaction that collapses the structure that we too, are dependent on.

Is this the price we are willing to pay for a pair of plastic shoes?

I say no, that despite the focus on the physical, we are more. We are heart and soul, mind, body, spirit. We are born of stars and we can and will leap over this world view based in old, untrue beliefs led by a science of isolation and religions of patriarchal, hierarchical constructs (your basic dominating Dad- with self reflective rights to rule). It is time to come together and heal. To transition into our fuller expectations and open the new possibilities. We are born with genius...let us help each other get to where we all can shine.

About Me

Former owner of Zootsuit Custom Apparel, am now, creative director of fashionRIP an eco-politico multi-media, collaborative arts series - part of FashonRip Project –an experiment in interrelationships and alignments. Acting to design life to meet needs and desires in ways that won’t jeopardize true needs, makes sense. I have a BA from The Evergreen State College - Environmental Science & Communications as foci. This tops off 4 AAs (Marketing, Apparel, Web Design, Transfer) certificates in modeling & Communications in Business & Media. Borders between disciplines are subjective, permeable. Broad spectrum approaches open up concepts of individual potential, expanded possibilities and a living uni-verse. Co creative partnering beats war against otherness. Stepping into harmony with our whole, authentic, possible selves is healthy growth. This is the story I am sharing. Grounded, i am happy to present, lecture, teach, create events, design, display, install and re-imagine all manner of arts. I also eco consult, alter, repair and redesign fabulous unique garb, images et al. E mail-debbarnesusa@hotmail.com subject fashionRIP,-for current information